However, when considered as individuals, the two men relate to the vastly different French governments of Napoleon and the monarchy. What’s more, the animosity between the two men is caused by their differences both in personality and in their ambitions but prevents them from destroying themselves.

“The Duel” begins with Lieutenant D’Hubert relaying a message to Lieutenant Feraud from the commanding general who is disgusted by Feraud’s duel against a civilian from a prominent family earlier that day, ultimately ending in the death of the civilian. D’Hubert finds Feraud at the home of a wealthy woman and gives Feraud the message. The two men arrive at Feraud’s lodging where, to the shock of D’Hubert, Feraud insists on a duel to avenge the disgrace of being called out while at the home of a lady. The two men fight, with D’Hubert reluctant and defensive, until D’Hubert realizes that Feraud means to kill him. D’Hubert ends up winning the duel by slicing Feraud’s arm. D’Hubert worries that he will lose face amongst his peers and knows he will be punished by the general.
Later, the two men fight a second duel with D’Hubert being stabbed in the side. He is admonished by his colonel and refuses to give up the root cause of the duel only saying that it is not over a woman.

D’Hubert ends up being promoted to captain, which angers Feraud who believes that D’Hubert earned his promotion through flattery to the commander. He vows to earn a promotion since he is unable to fight D’Hubert while they are of different ranks. Feraud earns his promotion and the two men duel for the third time. This time D’Hubert succeeds in cutting Feraud across the forehead, ending the duel and causing a scar on Feraud’s head.
Before the men can fight a third duel, the two men are both promoted to colonel and serve different commands. Eventually, they both serve in the sacred battalion as they flee to France after the defeat of the Army. During their flight, the two men are forced to rely on each other in battle, the first time they are amenable to each other.

Eventually, they are both promoted to general. Feraud is set to be made an example of, but D’Hubert secretly arranges for Feraud’s name to be removed from the list of prospective victims of the restored monarchy. It is only after Feraud is retired and finds out that D’Hubert is given a command, that he challenges D’Hubert to a final duel with pistols.
By this time D’Hubert is engaged to a woman, Adèle, but feels awkward and undeserving of her love. The eve of his duel with Feraud, he fears that his wife-to-be will not mourn him and happily find another. The two men fight and D’Hubert bests Feraud telling the man that his life, according to the code of honor, belongs to him. D’Hubert leaves and finds Adèle upset on his bed because upon hearing the news of her betrothed in a duel, she ran to D’Hubert’s home mourning thus proving her love to D’Hubert.

At this point, D’Hubert knows Adèle loves him and in a twist of fate, owes it to his nemesis, Feraud. He pays Feraud a pension without letting his enemy know who it came from him out of debt for finding out that Adèle loved him.

The duel between the two men becomes famous even decades after the actual first encounter. The fascination of the other characters with the origin of the duel reflects Conrad’s obsession “with the obscure genesis, in human emotion or ideation, of an extraordinary event.” (Nolte 225)

The two men could be considered a doppelganger, since they are such opposites. However, it’s their differences that are core to the story. Both men relate directly to a particular aspect of the era.

Feraud is born a common man. He seems to delight in battle and courageous acts and disdains the staff officers, who he includes D’Hubert among. He considers them to be men who gain rank through flattery of superiors rather than through battle.

“He saw in this promotion an intrigue, a conspiracy, a cowardly manoeuvre. That colonel knew what he was doing. He had hastened to recommend his favourite for a step.” (Conrad)

Feraud is constantly referred to as brash, fearless and hot-headed. For him, the only thing that is allowable in regard to the duel is the utter defeat of D’Hubert.

Feraud is a reference to Napoleon, who accepted nothing less than total defeat of the enemy. Napoleon was known to be a brash man who not only favored battle over concessions for peace, but actually enjoyed battle.

If Feraud can be compared to Napoleon, D’Hubert represents the royalists. He is aristocratic, cool-tempered and often more concerned with his personal position and favor among his peers than the duel. His relation to the royalists is demonstrated in the favor he has with the restored royalist government, which causes the final duel.

Both men, when considered together, indirectly reflect the state of France. When France is successful and the battles are won, they are most at odds with each other. During the first two duels, they both possess the most animosity towards each other. At that time, the French army was undefeatable. Even though they are both promoted at this time, they share little joy, since they are either encumbered with official duties or are plotting against or fighting each other.

“It was only after the occupation of that town that Captain Feraud found leisure to consider his future conduct in view of the fact that Captain D’Hubert had been given the position of third aide-de-camp to the marshal. He considered it a great part of a night, and in the morning summoned two sympathetic friends.” (Conrad)

However, when the French Army is at its worst, the two men are most amenable toward each other. During the long march home from the devastatingly unsuccessful invasion of Russia, the feud between two men is reduced to point where they are both soldiers who rely more on instinct and military knowledge to survive and have no time or ability to focus on the duel between the two of them.

“Though often marching in the ranks, or skirmishing in the woods side by side, the two officers ignored each other; this not so much from inimical intention as from a very real indifference. All their store of moral energy was expended in resisting the terrific enmity of nature and the crushing sense of irretrievable disaster.” (Conrad)

They come to the point where they need to depend on each other to survive and cast aside the duel.

“they found themselves cut off in the woods by a small party of Cossacks. A score of fur-capped, hairy horsemen rode to and fro, brandishing their lances in ominous silence; but the two officers had no mind to lay down their arms, and Colonel Feraud suddenly spoke up in a hoarse, growling voice, bringing his firelock to the shoulder: “You take the nearest brute, Colonel D’Hubert; I’ll settle the next one. I am a better shot than you are.” Colonel D’Hubert nodded over his levelled musket. Their shoulders were pressed against the trunk of a large tree;”(Conrad)

Both these excerpts demonstrate the inverse relationship between the Napoleonic army and the men when taken together. However, there is also a direct relationship between the individual men in regard to France.

After the restoration, when France is again a monarchy, D’Hubert is progressively more and more successful. He retains his rank, no small feat in and of itself. He also finds a woman whom he falls in love with, promising a bright future just as the future of France is bright with the wars of the empire in the past and the monarch restored. D’Hubert forgets the duels and focuses on the courting of Adèle. The pending union of D’Hubert and Adèle reflects the unity of France and the peace and fruitfulness of the less warlike, more stable monarchy.

Unlike D’Hubert, Feraud’s life gets progressively worse and likely would have ended in his execution if not for the intervention of D’Hubert. Feraud loses his command and is retired. This is the most devastating thing that could happen to the man who lived his life from battle to battle. Like Napoleon, locked away in his prison on an island in the Atlantic, Feraud is forced to stay in a particular town lest he interfere in the newly re-established government. His condition is essentially the same as Napoleon’s in that he has fallen from one of the most successful military men in France to an inconsequential commoner (Wikipedia).

The difference between the two men is what causes the duels and fuels further conflicts initiated by Feraud. However, the duels have the strange effect of making both men better than they would have likely been otherwise.

For Feraud, it’s the success of D’Hubert, which pushes him to excel and earn rank. He is disgusted by his enemy’s promotion and resorts to methods of promotion he would have disdained otherwise.

“Of a happy-go-lucky disposition, of a temperament more pugnacious than military, Lieutenant Feraud had been content to give and receive blows for sheer love of armed strife, and without much thought of advancement; but now an urgent desire to get on sprang up in his breast. This fighter by vocation resolved in his mind to seize showy occasions and to court the favourable opinion of his chiefs like a mere worldling.” (Conrad)

The success of D’Hubert also served to save Feraud’s life, even though he never knew it. For D’Hubert, the duel served as a way to check his progress. He is constantly worried about his place in society and it’s conceivable that had he not had to worry about the duel from time to time, he would have been more successful and of eventual interest to the restored monarchy. Had he been allowed to work through the ranks unhindered by Feraud, his name would have likely have graced the list of names to be made examples of by the
crown.

“The Duel” serves as a drama of the Napoleonic era as told through the lives of two men whose private battle reflects the very real battle going on around them.